Whatever he wants, I’ll do what I can to make it a reality.
“How is the math homework coming along?” I ask him.
Noah beams at me. “All done!”
“Really? All of it?”
“Yep! Dad helped! He’s really good at math, Mom. Did you know that?”
I glance across the table at Rowan. “No, I didn’t know that.”
We went to the same school until I was fourteen, but our social circles didn’t overlap often enough for me to notice what he was good at. After my parents died, I was homeschooled with two of my cousins on the outskirts of the territory.
Rowan merely shrugs. “It’s not a very useful skill. Alphas don’t exactly worry themselves with balancing the pack’s checkbooks.”
“Mom is really bad at math,” Noah chimes in.
I place a hand over my heart, pretending to be horribly offended by that. It makes Noah burst out into a fit of giggles.
“I’m sure that’s not true,” Rowan says, clearly trying not to laugh along with him.
Noah shakes his head. “No, seriously. Every time she has to help me with my math homework, she ends up more confused than me!”
I tut. “In my defense, the way they teach you kids these days is very different than how we learned things.”
“That’s true,” Rowan says, coming to my defense. He could very easily make me the butt of the joke for the sake of amusing his son, but that’s not his style.
Noah keeps chattering, more talkative and energetic than I’ve seen him be in a while. “Mom once told me that her best subject in school was language arts. Like, writing and grammar and stuff. Ugh!”
Rowan smiles softly. “I remember.”
I balk. “You do?”
His eyes lock with mine. “Of course I do.”
But I hardly noticed you at all when we were kids, I almost say. Instead, I shrug off the gentleness in his gaze and focus back on Noah.
“Being good at communication skills like writing and reading is important,” I tell him.
“Yeah, yeah. You always say that.”
“A good communicator makes for a good leader,” Rowan adds.
I try not to flinch. He didn’t mean for that to come across as a slight, but I can’t help translating it that way. Because I’ll never be a leader. I was born to be his Mate, and therefore born to stand by his side at the helm of the pack, but that is a destiny that will never come to fruition. It doesn’t matter if I can give a good speech or analyze complex documents.
Rowan shifts on the other side of the booth. “Is your shift over?”
“Just about.”
“Aw, man,” Noah mumbles, sinking low. “Does that mean we have to leave now?”
I gaze at him, noting the twinkle in his eyes and the glow in his cheeks. He barely knows his father, but he loves him, anyway. I can see it written plainly on his face-he wants to spend as much time with Rowan as possible.
And I can’t be selfish about this. I can’t drag him away again, even if I’m not exactly eager to spend more time in Rowan’s presence. Especially after last night.
“I guess we can stay a little while longer,” I tell him.
Across from us, Rowan smiles. I try not to let that smile affect me, and instead force myself to turn my attention to Noah, but there’s a light heat spreading up my neck from the intensity of his stare.
I need to stop overthinking things. Whatever happened between us last night was nothing more than lust. As soon as I accept that as truth, the easier this entire situation will be.
Utter fool, growls the wolf within me.
Rowan
The next night, I have to force myself to go through the motions of my responsibilities with the Greenbriars, when all I really want to do is focus on doing what I can to protect Alina and my son. I meet with my father to confirm all is well on our own borders, confirm with various Betas that patrols have been running smoothly, and meet briefly with the elders to make sure that no community complaints have arisen in the past couple of days.
It’s the bare minimum of what I should be doing as their future Alpha, but for now, I have bigger priorities.
When I’m free from my duties, I hop in my truck and drive north to the shared border between my land and Whiterose territory. Leaving my vehicle parked inconspicuously on the side of a dirt road that skirts the boundary between our packs, I slip out into the cool night, shuck off my clothing, and shift into wolf form.
As my body morphs and my senses sharpen, it becomes even more apparent that spring is dawning on this region with all the subtlety of a battering ram. There is so much moisture in the air, and the tickling presence of pollen is already dense, suggesting that we’ll have early blooms this year.
Automatically, I think of Alina and her lilac scent. Alina and her little garden in front of the house. Alina and her flowery perfume, her springtime freshness.
Right now, however, I can’t afford to be distracted.
Digging my paws into the damp soil, I shake out my fur and breathe in deeply. There isn’t much wind tonight-nothing more than a gentle breeze rustling the shadowy leaves, but that will work in my favor. It will make my targets a little more difficult to locate, but it will also help to mask my own scent.
I start running west, keeping to the Greenbriar edge of the border. Yet, even as I remain on my own land, I make sure to open my senses to any sign of patrolling Whiteroses.
Since the small altercation that occurred between our packs a couple of weeks ago, you’d think that they’d want to be vigilant along this part of their border, but it seems that Henry Whiterose hasn’t declared it necessary.
In fact, I’m beginning to question why my father respects the Whiterose Alpha so much. The old man doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything at all for his people.
But it’s not my pack, and therefore none of my business.
Or rather, it would be none of my business if Alina and Noah weren’t currently residing in their territory.
I need to find a way to convince Alina to come home. As I run through the forest, free and wild and undeterred by any other shifters, I try to puzzle through it.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.